Steps to build an education center, online school or knowledge center that's funded with grants...

Steps to build an education center, online school or knowledge center that's funded with grants...

Many of you have embarked on this journey of creating courses, podcasts, coaching programs, services, writing books, publishing articles, or offering high-ticket programs, but from what I observe, analyze, and understand - just a handful of people have really reached your true potential or hit the goals that you've set for yourself.

In this post, I want to share a strategy that I've used for the past 7 years that has helped me get more eyeballs, gain more publicity, gain more traction, and helped me position myself as a preeminent source of knowledge in my niche, but also generate a ton of business through the process.

It's to create an educational arm to my for-profit business that can be funded with grants from large Fortune 500s.

1. Create an education arm to your for-profit venture

Think about it - no matter what business you're in, educating your dream customers about the benefits of your "solution" comes before a sale.

People need to understand why they need your solution and understand the value before they pull out their credit card and purchase your course, program, high-ticket offer.

It can be any topic - how to start a business, how to create an online course, how to talk to your kids, how to file trademarks, how to eliminate stress, how to overcome depression, etc.

2. Conduct market research to understand what your market needs and wants before creating content

You need to know what your customers want and need before you decide to create a solution. Conducting market research with the free tools out there, like Google, Youtube, or even FB, comes before the creation part.

Once you understand what people are searching for and what they need, and what articles or landing pages show up when you enter specific keywords, it's a lot easier to create content on those topics - it's reverse engineering the process.

3. Create content that solve the problems that your customers are facing

Now that you know what your customers are looking for, create your courses, programs, high-ticket offers, podcast topics, books, or content that addresses those exact questions/needs/wants

4. Structure your education center, online school or knowledge business as a nonprofit education entity

From a technical stand-point, structure your education center, online school or knowledge business as a nonprofit entity.

People think that nonprofits cannot make money or nonprofits operate at a loss or nonprofits are some complex structures - they are not.

They are businesses at the end of the day. I'd like you to think of your educational based nonprofit as a mini-university, like Harvard or MIT or USC.

These organizations generate tens of billions in revenue every year. They have staff. They offer programs that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

No matter what industry you're in - creating an education nonprofit arm will enable you to stand out from competitors, help you gain more goodwill, enable you to gain more publicity and exposure, and allow you to penetrate the same market in a different manner.

There are countries where you can start a nonprofit that's approved in 1-2 weeks, even if you're a noncitizen. That means you can live anywhere, still open a nonprofit, operate it completely virtually, and still reap all the benefits of having a business that is taxed at 0%.

In addition, these nonprofits are perpetual entities - they do not expire, so it's a business you can run for years or decades to come.

5. Host your courses, training, videos, books, webinars, podcasts, or summits through the education center

You can host all your content through your nonprofit, in addition to your for-profit. It's like starting your own version of Udemy or Coursera, or Harvard extension in your own niche/industry.

Think about how many of your competitors are using this strategy to stand out and gain more exposure - maybe 1%, if that.

In addition, you gain goodwill from operating a business that does not just focus on revenue - it's more than that - it's creating long-lasting change in your market and giving people the gift of education.

You'll have the ability to impact lives, and make money in the process.

You can call yourself a philanthropist, and actually give back to causes you care about as well.

6. Create a free hotline service that allows your customers to ask their questions and get answers

Once people enroll in your courses or programs, you can use the same workflow that you use in your business or create a "hotline" to answer questions that people have.

In my law firm, I created the Business Law Hotline, Nonprofit Hotline, Trademark Hotline - and answer questions that people would have on those topics.

Obviously, if I could answer a question a potential client has, they are going to hire me- that's how you get a new customer to join your course, program, service, coaching, consulting, or high-ticket offer.

"Sell value, don't compete on price".

7. Get large Fortune 500s to fund your organization with grants to advertise your content, trainings, funnels

The advantage of structuring this as a nonprofit is that you can get the largest companies in the world to fund your education center with free grants.

Almost every fortune 500 has a grant program.

From getting free ads from Google, to free technology products, or hardware, or operating expenses, or sponsorships, to special opportunities - your nonprofit opens doors that your for-profit cannot do.

And - you're not going off-course, it's the same content that you're already publishing and putting out there, except you have the support of large companies who will gladly fund your venture and help you share your "IP" with your dream customers.

For example, Google has a program that gives educational nonprofits $10K a month in free ads. That's $120K a year. That's $600K over 5 years. Free ads on Google.

That's a ton of volume you can get from that. That's how I have advertised all my content over the past 7 years - with large organizations literally giving me hundreds of thousands to advertise what I'm already advertising.

8. Repurpose tens of thousands of advertising dollars that you would be spending on ads into other things, like hiring virtual staff, creating new ventures, branding, etc.

Finally, since you have free ads, you can repurpose your ad spend towards other things.

....

So, whether it's more impact, more customers, more eyeballs, more momentum, more awareness, more revenue, more leads, more exposure, more goodwill, more impact - this formula can help you check all those boxes.

This formula has enabled me to create close to 8 additional jobs in the past year, attract 6, 7 and even 8 figure entrepreneurs to work with me, position myself as the preeminent source of knowledge in the niches I operate in, gain recognition from Dean, Tony, and other top entrepreneurs, get on Tedx stages, enable me to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars towards philanthropy, give away millions in free courses to build my brand, and will be getting me into large publications like Entrepreneur, Forbes and other magazines in the next few months...among other things like helping me find more meaning in my work, helping me have more cash-flow, helping my marriage, helping me build a custom-home in a thriving city, helping out family members, etc.

This model eliminates some of the inherent risks of starting and running a business while giving you a ton of benefits at the same time!

I hope this long-post inspires you to rethink your knowledge business and do the things others are not willing to, in order to get to where you want to go.

And worst case - you don't like free ad dollars or having a nonprofit, just dissolve it - it's a simple dissolution form, and it's 0% tax anyway, so no biggie!

Feel free to ask questions below, happy to answer them - until then GOOD LUCK!

Let's do this!

~ Sid Peddinti